The first stage is kindergarten, but this is not the term for them to use. In Swedish, they call it “Dogis.”In English, they use the term “Preschool.” Then, what is the difference between Kindergarten and Preschool? According to my friends, they say if it is Preschool, the faculties work in the school are called “Teacher” and can get higher pay. Otherwise, they are just like the nursery maids or some other titles like that. It is not compulsory for kids to go to preschools. However, kids whose parents both have work will be sent to there. Parents do not have to pay lots of money and kids can stay there from 8 o’clock in the morning until 5 o’clock in the afternoon. It is also very free for folks to bring their kids back at any time. But parents would prefer to let their kids stay in the school longer to experience the interaction between peers and learning some knowledge. The age to go to preschool depends on the parents. But when they are 6 or 7, it is the time for them to go to next stage.

The time period of elementary school (or “Grundskola” in Swedish) is 9 years and divides three years to be a group. The period from the first year to the third year is junior school (or “lågstadie”), and the period from the fourth year to the sixth year is middle school (or “mellanstadie”), finally, the period from the seventh year to the ninth year is senior school (or “högstadie”). The purpose of junior school to some degree is similar to preschool. Kids learn some alphabets and simple counting. Besides these, the only thing they can do is to play, as much as they can and they want. In the middle school, they start to learn English, geography, math and some basic subjects. Then, in the senior school, students have to choose which third language to learn, like German, French, Spanish and so on. Other subjects to learn are just like in middle school, but the contents areadvanced than previous period. They do not have any pressure of grades until grade 8. In grade 8 and 9, they will get grades. But the only grades they use to apply for the senior high school are the grades of 9. There is also a big examine for them after grade 9. The subjects for the exam are Swedish, English and Math. Everyone has to pass the exam. If you fail, you will have a class called “special program” in Senior high school which helps you to improve the ability in these areas. My friends said that almost 25 percents of students in Gothenburg fail this examination and have to take the special program in senior high school.

Sometimes they will have to change the school when they are going to study the seventh grade. This is because some schools only offer the grades from one to six, some offer from seven to nine, and still some offer the whole grades from first to ninth. They are forced to change the school because their originally school can not provide further education. In senior high school, you can choose what is your main interest; in social science or in nature science. You can learn some basic subjects like history, geography in social science or physics, chemistry in nature science. However, this is only under the condition that you get good grade in previous education, namely, grade 9 in the elementary school. What will happen if you have worse grade? You can go to senior high as well, but the programs you can choose are focus on some specific area, like motor program and so on.

The next stage is university or college. The difference between university and college is that university there are some major subjects you have to study, but more general thing to study in college. They have to use the grades in senior high school to apply for university. Nowadays, the time duration to finish the education in university is four and half years. The degree after you graduation is “civilingenjör,” a special term in Swedish. There is no equivalent word in English, but it is something like “graduated engineer.” But now, Swedish government is going to change the way. Students have to study whole five years, three years as college students and two year Master students. When they graduate, they have degree both in Bachelor and Master.

After graduate, most of them will like to go to work. A few people would like to have more education. They have some choices like to study Business Administration (BA) for three years, Medical school for five and half years. Roughly, there is no tuition fee to pay in Sweden. Citizens have the equal education chance to learn. It is thanks to their high tax and sound welfare.

Gossip Zones

．If you are not in Sweden, you might not believe the English degree of Swedish people is very high just like they are native speaker of English country. But WHY??

According to my friends I interviewed, they said they have English classes from the fourth grade in elementary until the third grade in senior high grade, totally nine years. It is really quite a long time. Every week, they have the English class approximately 3 or 4 hours a week. They have a book within lots of new words in it, and after the English classes they have to learn and recite the new words by heart. Another point is many of the programs on the TV or movies are in English, they have plenty of chances to be in touch with English. Swedish people they realize the language they speak is only used by 9 millions of people. 9 million is only a fraction number of the residents live on the globe. In order to open the channel to connect with the whole world, they know they must learn English. And they are very successful in English education.

．I heard lots of Swedish students go abroad for few month or years when they graduate from senior high school. Is that really very common here? WHY?

It is very common here. Lots of students go abroad when they graduate from senior high school. You will want to go abroad maybe because your friends. The first one goes abroad, then the second one. Then you will think, why can I go abroad just like them? Plenty of Swedish students prefer to go to South or East Asia, but it depends on individuals. Somebody only goes for few month, finds the thing he likes to do in other countries, like skiing (This is what one of my friends did, he went to France to go skiing for few month and then came back). Or you can go for one or two years, find a job and start a new life until you want to come back. It is very nice. As if it is a break during your education or your life, the chance to experience outside the world. You can even have this break during your college education; you are the boss of yourself.

．I also heard that student will move out from their home when graduate from senior high school? WHY?

Students move out from their home when they are 19 or 20. It is not really a rule to do like these. Maybe it is because kids want to be independent, like economic independent. Government gives every college student 2,000 Kr per month, and you can also loan from the government 5,000 Kr per month, which you have to repay when you start to work. Usually the interest rate is very low, depends on the economy of that time. It is a little bit more than 2.5% now. How much you will be paid consists in your education degree. If you don’t have any education, you get USD 3000 per month. But if you graduate from “civilingenjör,” your salary will be around USD 6000 per month. Then, you have money to pay back your debt.